


A Bright Star In The Darkness

by SereneSorrow



Category: Stargirl (TV 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-20
Updated: 2020-05-20
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:28:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,305
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24289702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SereneSorrow/pseuds/SereneSorrow
Summary: It's a choice.Everything is always a choice.What happens when we make a different one?What happens when everything we do is motivated by different considerations?~Courtney and Pat may never get along.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	A Bright Star In The Darkness

**Author's Note:**

> Me, messing up canon just for the heck of it.

Courtney turned away from the window after her mom left for work, running up to her room. She slammed the door shut and then thumped the present she'd gotten for her dad on the desk without turning on any lights. Just about to throw herself into bed, Courtney looked out of her own window first, still hoping to see a car or her father coming up the driveway. There was no one, but a small glitter of gold caught her eye.

There was a present on her windowsill. Shiny silver paper with a golden bow covering a small box. Moving a chair over to climb onto, she twisted the lock and struggled to shove open the window, finally lifting it high enough to reach out and pull the small box inside. The cold air blowing into her room made her shiver, and she tugged the window shut again, forgetting about the lock as she turned to sit on the chair.

Moonlight shown through the window over her shoulder and illuminated the tag on the present. Courtney read the tag, blinking in surprise and feeling a strange giddiness as the names registered and amazed by how many words were crammed onto the small surface of the box that was only a few inches wide.

_'To Courtney, Merry Christmas my little Star-girl. Someday you'll find the light I've left to guide your path, love Dad.'_

With a big smile Courtney tore open the wrapping paper and opened the little cardboard jewelry box. Inside, on soft white padding, was a chain of golden stars. It was long, enough to wrap around her neck several times, and little star charms of several sizes and shapes dangled an inch apart on the golden chain. In the middle of the chain was an oval locket, and Courtney pried it open to find a picture of her dad already inside.

Throwing the chain over her head she turned and knelt on the chair, looking out the window at the starry sky with the locked clutched tightly in her hand. She wished that she'd gotten to _see_ her dad and give him the present she'd gotten for him too, but he _had_ come to see her and she knew that whatever he was doing had to be _really_ important.

***  
***

Starman.

She'd never seen a clear picture of the Justice Society of America before, even though she'd heard about the old superheroes plenty of times growing up, less and less frequently as she got older until hardly anyone spoke of them at all. Now all Courtney could do was stare at the man in the photo. She pulled the chain she wore every day out of her sweatshirt and pried open the locket, staring between the two pictures of her father.

She _knew_ he'd been doing something important.

Slipping the locket back where it was hidden beneath her shirt she then folded up the larger picture and tucked it into a pocket as she put the other photo back in the frame and where she'd found it. Courtney didn't want _Pat_ to know she'd gone through his stuff.

Pat, the annoying jerk who acted like he could replace her dad, and apparently hadn't bothered to mention that he'd _known_ her dad. Furious, Courtney kicked the long wooden box that lay on the floor, torn between hiding the fact that she'd found Pat out and stomping upstairs to confront him about it.

The box lit up with a golden light and she stumbled back in surprise as the lid flipped open and revealed a strangely shaped staff. It was like a staring contest, her eyes locked onto the staff and it was almost like it was watching her _back_.

Hesitantly, Courtney stepped forward, bending down to reach for the staff and wrapping both hands around it. The staff lept into the air and she found herself standing again, the staff still parallel to the ground at the height of her chest.

_'What the Hell?'_ Courtney thought to herself. _'Starman's staff?'_

She found herself twirling the staff as it's glow moved from one end of the staff to the other and back.

_'Dad.'_

Tipping the box shut again with the toe of her shoe, Courtney let go of the staff as it floated in the air all on it's own. She changed her mind, opening the box again and darting over to a corner of the basement where a broom and dustpan were propped up against the wall. The tools had come with the house and were covered in dust and spiderwebs, so she pulled her sleeves over her hands and snatched the broom. She put the broom in the crate instead before she locked it shut again, in case Pat moved the thing around so that he wouldn't realize the staff wasn't inside.

***  
***

Blowing up a car, she hadn't meant to do that. Talking to the staff was weird, because it didn't _talk_ exactly but she still knew what it was _trying to say_. She understood it somehow, even though it didn't use words, and it made her feel strangely amazed and even awed while at the same time really frustrated. Kind of like how she felt when she wished upon a star as a kid.

Hiding the staff in her bedroom closet, and tying the doorknobs together to keep the doors shut because the staff kept trying to escape (she understood the locked crate better now), Courtney headed downstairs to find her mom.

She was opening up another box, still unpacking even though it was late, and Courtney didn't see Pat anywhere. Good.

“Mom? Can we talk for a second?”

“You owe Pat an apology, Courtney, you can't keep treating him so rudely.” Barbara said without really looking away from the box.

“I know mom,” she said because she'd learned by now that there was no winning these arguments about _Pat_ , “but can we talk about dad for a second? I just have a question-”

“Courtney, your father only came to visit you once a year, and after five years he left. You need to stop thinking about him. Pat is a good man and you need to give him a chance.” Barbara insisted, leaving no room for Courtney's questions.

Mumbling something affirmative to keep her mom happy (because she didn't feel like being grounded) Courtney turned and headed back upstairs to her bedroom, feeling like she was shaking apart inside at the dismissal of her _real_ father.

Her dad was _Starman_ , she didn't care what _Pat_ thought or if she hurt his feelings. What did that matter anyway, he had his own kid and now he had her mom. Courtney wasn't just going to stop feeling the way she felt because it wasn't what _Pat_ wanted her to feel. No matter what her mom said, her feelings counted too.

The staff had escaped from the closet, but it was still hovering there over her bed, that was a relief. So Courtney followed it out the window. She wanted to see what this staff could do, because no matter what her mom said, she was Starman's daughter.

She was her dad's little Star-girl.

***  
***

_“Where did you get that staff? Why did you attack my son?”_

Courtney gasped as she heard the words even though the man's mouth didn't move. Telepathy, telekinesis, she had no idea what was going on but she didn't want to get beaten to Hell by this man just because of a misunderstanding. He'd already tossed her around like a super-ball, the way she'd bounced off those tires was going to bruise so bad she didn't think she'd be able to _move_ tomorrow.

“It was a misunderstanding! I wound up at the drive in and three guys from school were throwing stuff at people and hassling everybody, so I was just going to let the air out of their tires! The staff just got out of control when they spotted me and tried to beat me up!” Courtney rushed to explain while she held the staff between herself and the man that was telekinetically holding her in place.

_“An accident? Yes, I can read that's the truth in your mind.”_ The man stared at her in a way that freaked her out, but the grip of his telekinesis loosened.

_“Your father... you're thinking about your father... Starman. I see, you're Sylvester's daughter.”_

“My dad's name was Sam.” Courtney said blankly, confused.

_“An alias most likely, to keep you safe.”_

The telekinetic grip vanished entirely, and Courtney lowered the staff, watching the man warily.

_“Well, since you weren't attacking my son maliciously and it seems he deserved it, I suppose I have no reason to harm you. Just know that he has nothing to do with this business, and your staff is overkill when dealing with him.”_

“Uh... yeah, I mean... I wasn't _trying_ to start a fight. It was the staff's idea!” Courtney protested, wondering if she could really get away with blaming the staff, even though it was completely true.

_“You don't know how to control it?”_ The man replied, looking amused and condescending but weirdly more approachable now that he wasn't attacking her.

“Um, no, I just found it tonight.” Courtney didn't know whether she was defensive or embarrassed.

It was like getting caught playing with something that wasn't a toy, and she had a feeling that there was some kind of hidden irony she was missing as the strange man (who still hadn't _actually_ introduced himself) chastised her for doing something dangerous.

“Look, I'm really sorry about your son, but this is the first time I've found out anything about my dad! My mom won't tell me anything and my stepdad had this in some crate and kept it a secret too! I couldn't just ignore it!” Courtney finally burst out, tired of adults telling her what to do.

The man observed her outburst, making her feel even more self-conscious as she changed her grip on the staff and shuffled her feet.

_“Fair enough, you want to know more about your father, but if you're going to learn about using that staff you need to do it somewhere that foolish teenagers won't be targets just because they're being_ rude _.”_

Yeah, she could see that. Messing with those jerks' car would have been one thing, but the staff was too much. Apologizing again, even though she felt ridiculous, Courtney tried to think of where in this weirdly friendly town she could go to in order to practice with the staff.

Apparently taking pity on her (and still reading her thoughts, which was creepy but didn't bother her as much as it should have because this whole night had been one shock after another) the man offered her a solution.

_“I know a place, tomorrow night.”_ He added the address and then turned on his heel with a spin that was way too dramatic for any normal person, but then obviously he wasn't.

Courtney was distinctly suspicious of going to an address she'd never heard of before to meet an older man she didn't know before tonight and still didn't know the name of, but she really wanted to know more about her father and this guy _knew his name_. His _real_ name because apparently he'd been using a _fake_ one. She heard a disembodied chuckle echoing out of the now empty room, before the man 'spoke' one last time.

_“Henry King Sr.”_

So that was his name. Good to know, but she still didn't know what she was going to do.

“Well staff, it's just you and me. If I get in over my head you'll be there, right?” Courtney said to the staff in her hands, sensing its agreement and knowing that at least she could count on the staff her father had left for her if it turned out she was doing something _really_ stupid.

***

Shoving the crate back against the farthest, darkest wall in the basement Pat followed by stacking the boxes of Sylvester's things on top of and around it. There were several boxes of everyday items that he arranged in front of the boxes containing the Starman uniform, pictures and the Cosmic Staff itself. Heaving a tired breath he stepped back to look over the arrangement, checking that it was as boring as possible so that no one would think to look inside any of the boxes.

Pat was relieved that Courtney had decided to go out after all, he hadn't seen or heard her leave but Barbara hadn't seen her anywhere around the house so he was fairly certain that she had snuck off somewhere without telling either of them. In any case, it gave him the chance to hide things down here better, he had been nervous as they were moving in that some of the boxes might be misplaced or that Barbara or God forbid _Courtney_ would open one and ask questions that he would have to answer with lies.

It was one thing to take on the responsibility of protecting and watching over Starman's family now that Courtney was getting to that age where superheroes started getting into trouble, the lies were something else. Bad enough that he'd entered into a relationship with Barbara under false pretenses, but compounding the lies would only make things worse.

He would have preferred to move these boxes somewhere more secure, but his garage hadn't been renovated yet and he'd already had to move the car and the crate containing the S.T.R.I.P.E. Armor there, too many extra boxes would have raised questions. It would have to wait, and the basement would have to be good enough for now. Pat reassured himself that the basement was dark and dirty enough that no one would want to come down here anyway.

**Author's Note:**

> So I have no idea where THIS is going... mainly I just want to twist everything to be opposite I guess? Anger instead of acceptance and vice versa? Sinister motives instead of innocent coincidence?
> 
> I don't know if I'll keep writing more of this or not... (kind of want to but might not be inspired, who knows?) so we'll see when episode 2 comes out. :)


End file.
